Hairy time for ND

September 16, 2008|ERIC HANSEN Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- It's part mullet, part Mohawk, maybe even part wounded Wolverine. And where the Notre Dame football program is concerned, it's progress. Twisted progress maybe, but progress, nonetheless. That Irish senior Pat Kuntz's latest assault on his own hair was barely an afterthought following Notre Dame's soggy-but-satisfying 35-17 subduing of Michigan Saturday is a sign that ND is taking the right steps away from its 2007 free fall. So is the fact Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis' decision to put off knee surgery seems to be drawing more second-guessing than anything he or his team is doing or not doing on the field. Early progress doesn't necessarily translate, though, to national respect. It's more like intrigue at this point. A national curiosity perhaps? Here are the five most-pressing questions surrounding the Irish team and only one answer that involves hair: More than anything, it was a game where Weis may have finally shed his NFL/corporate skin and dived right into college football's emotional pool. It wasn't about a schematic advantage. It was about inspiration. "We used them yesterday; today was ours," Weis said of Holtz and the last Irish team to finish at the top of the polls, 20 years ago. "Yesterday was to show respect for the '88 team, and we did it at the pep rally (Friday), and Lou came to dinner last night and I had him talk to our team for about five minutes last night. "Today was not Lou and not the '88 team, it was those guys steppin' up and trying to earn the respect that (linebacker) Mo Crum was talking about at the pep rally yesterday. They wanted to make a statement that Notre Dame is not some garbage school out there that everyone can crap on all the time." Linebacker Brian Smith's 35-yard fumble return 10 seconds into the fourth quarter provided the perfect bookend to his pregame confrontation with the Michigan running backs and a Wolverine assistant coach. "I was stretching in the end zone, before we came out as a team, and (they) came over and said, 'You've got to get out of the end zone.' I said, 'What are you talking about? I stretch here every week.' And they're like, 'Oh it's NCAA rules. Well, I finished my routine right there, right in the middle of them. I wasn't going to move for Michigan. "It was like them coming into my house and saying, 'Let me watch the TV. You go to your room.' I'm not going to let that happen. So I was kind of irritated. I was geeked up for the rest of the game because of that." He had plenty of company. The Irish (2-0) rolled to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and helped coax six Michigan turnovers. Smith recovered a Brandon Minor fumble on a swing pass on the Wolverines' opening possession at the Michigan 11. Robert Hughes scored on a two-yard run 50 seconds later. On the ensuing kickoff Michael Shaw bobbled the kickoff and ND's Mike Anello recovered on the 14-yard line. Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen hooked up with Duval Kamara on a 10-yard fade route for another quick score. Michigan's third touch ended with the Wolverines (1-2) turning the ball over on downs at the Irish 37. The Wolverines did convert a fake punt earlier in the drive, even after the Irish called time out just before the Wolverines showed fake. Michigan's Zoltan Mesko, a native of Romania who ran two years of track at Twinsburg (Ohio) High, managed to ramble 13 yards against the Irish. Still, ND eventually turned that small momentum push right around. A pass-interference penalty on first down set up the Irish on the Michigan 48-yard line. Clausen then connected with Golden Tate on a 48-yard go route for the 21-0 lead. Tate finished with six catches for a Michigan series-record 127 yards. Michigan did find its rhythm but never a knockout blow as it fell in the 300th Irish victory in the history of ND Stadium. The Wolverines outgained the Irish 388-260, controlled time of possession and even had the stronger punting game. "Six turnovers, are you kidding me?" Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I can tell you a lot of them are unforced errors. Maybe it's inexperience, I don't know. I don't think we're that far off. We're not good enough to play poorly and win; we're not. Maybe in the future we will be. Like I said, there are a lot of positive things going on. The guys are working extremely hard. Michigan football will be back, hopefully sooner rather than later." The biggest positive for the Wolverines was freshman running back Sam McGuffie, with 131 yards on 25 carries and four receptions for 47 yards. Hughes was a statistical hero for the Irish, with 79 yards on 19 carries, many of those in the second-half rain when the Irish were obviously trying to run clock. Senior safety David Bruton recorded 15 tackles and had two more turnovers in the red zone Saturday after shifting the momentum last weekend with a goal-line strip and recovery against San Diego State. "We've now got to do this every week," Bruton said. And knowing that the next round of doubts are around the corner. "You know, as usual is the Notre Dame way, it will be, 'Well, they beat Michigan, and they're a growing team and going through transition. Let's see what they do against Michigan State.' " Weis said. "Every week it's the same old story, but I tell you what, for our team and for our students and for our alums and for our fans, today was a big win." Even bigger for the coach. and answered all those questions, which was a long press conference. And then the next day we started going to work on trying to change things. We started then. We didn't wait six weeks from then. We didn't wait a year from then. We started then. "And I remembered standing there on that sideline humiliated at how things were going, and I said, 'Things are going to change.' I think that the message I wanted to say to them before we went out of the locker room is, 'Today is the day you've got to make a change.' I'd like to sit there and take the kudos, but it wasn't me, it was the players. But if you're asking me if I was kind of wired up, yeah, I probably was a little wired up." The far-sided view of Saturday's rain-soaked upending of a Michigan team in transition, yet still a two-point favorite, might be a little jaundiced. The drive-by commentaries tend to get stuck in the flaws of the moment and the choreographed spin from the past. Who could blame them? They've been burned before by spin, and the current Irish numbers through two games are a mishmash of underwhelming and stunning. Yes, Clausen is merely the 55th-ranked quarterback in the country after two games in passing efficiency, but strong safety Kyle McCarthy leads the nation in solo tackles. Yes, the team rushing average per game (109.0) is still putzing along to be the second-worst in history, but the Irish are among the nation's leaders in both kickoff and punt return coverage. Yes, the Irish haven't been statistically dominant in either of their wins and their third-down inefficiency (6-of-24 in conversions over two games) is the most troubling trend of all. Then again, renaissances don't happen with a flip of a switch. Starting one, feeding one, living one is a process. Those who eavesdropped on Saturday's game may have wanted to see perfection. What they got instead was progress, however cleverly disguised. What matters most now is what the Irish do with Saturday's latest Notre Dame moment. Then it really doesn't matter what Michigan does the rest of the season. If Weis and the Irish use it as an opportunity to build, then not even a 1-11 record by the Wolverines is going to suck the magic out of Sept. 13. If you put it in a frame and admire it hanging in the national consciousness, you're inviting the same thing that happened to UCLA Saturday after its opening-weekend shocker over nationally ranked Tennessee. Saturday's score: BYU 59, UCLA 0. So what does progress look like for the Irish moving forward? Saturday's game at Michigan State -- ND's first venture on the road this season -- isn't a must-win, but it is a must-composure game. Keeping turnovers and penalties to a minimum is a good place to start. The defense gets it first test from a premier running back (MSU's Javon Ringer is third in the nation). The aforementioned third-down conversions will be a point of emphasis for the offense. But it really starts with Weis. His coaching mentor, Bill Belichick, has been simultaneously the best and the worst thing that happened to him during his first three years of coaching the Irish. The New England head coach's cerebral side feeds Weis'. But the former Patriots offensive coordinator had to find his own way, his own identity when it came to matters of dealing with media, dealing with criticism, dealing with power-wielding alumni, dealing with a different age group of players. Saturday the guy who usually shoots from the hip spoke from the heart. And his players responded. And now Notre Dame -- at least by the Sagarin ratings standard -- is the 41st-best team in America and more highly rated than all but two of its remaining opponents -- No. 1 USC and No. 23 Boston College (the others are Michigan State 44, Purdue 62, Stanford 64, North Carolina 51, Washington 65, Pittsburgh 69, Navy 82 and Syracuse 126). Sagarin doesn't rate coaches, but Weis is back to being an unknown in much of the college football world's eyes, which actually is an upgrade from where he sat a week ago. All he has is an opportunity, not a manifest destiny, to do something special with his 2008 Irish. In other words, he really is day-to-day. And it never felt so good.Staff writer Eric Hansen: ehansen@sbtinfo.com; (574) 235-6470